This Mom Was So Distraught Over Her Divorce She Shot Her Children & The Family Dog Too!

This is just heartbreaking. To read a murder-suicide story about a mother killing her own children and then herself is horrifying enough. But what allegedly drove her to do it is even worse. 

A bitter divorce and custody battle led to a tragic double murder and suicide in rural Pennsylvania. Police found the bodies of Carola Arnau, 40, her 10-year-old daughter and a four-year-old son inside their home after responding to a call about a fire at the residence.

Police say Arnau shot her daughter multiple times in the head while she was sleeping, then shot her son multiple times in the body. Arnau also shot and killed the family dog.

After the shootings, she then used an accelerant and set multiple fires around the home, as well as the detached garage her estranged husband was living in. After setting the fires, she shot herself in the head, committing suicide. The deaths were officially ruled a murder-suicide by the county coroner. 

District Attorney Craig Stedman told reporters that the "only small comfort" was that the children appeared to have been shot in their sleep. "I tell people, in my job, some days are worse than others, and this is one of the worst, and certainly one of the darkest," Stedman said. 

 Arnau’s estranged husband and the father of the children, Miguel Arnau, 45, was at work while all of this was happening. Carola Arnau filed for divorce from him in February 2016 after 10 years of marriage, citing that their marriage was “irretrievably broken.” He lived in the detached garage and shared custody of the children during the divorce proceedings.

But this divorce wasn't just a matter of mom and dad not getting along anymore. In 2017, Carola claimed her husband had inappropriate contact with their four-year-old son. The allegation was investigated by the Pennsylvania Department of Children and Youth Services and was dismissed as being unfounded. 

Carola was receiving mental health services recently and police have asked friends and family to come forward to describe her recent state of mind.

And because this story just isn't awful enough: the gun and ammunition she used in the shootings were legally purchased just days before the murder-suicide occurred.